The 1971–72 UEFA Cup was the inaugural season of the UEFA Cup, now known as the UEFA Europa League, which became the third club football competition organised by UEFA. The tournament retained the structure and format of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which ran from 1955 to 1971 and had been held independently of UEFA by an organizing committee composed mostly of FIFA executives.
English clubs had won the last four editions of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. This was the first ever European final between two clubs from England, a feat that would not be repeated until the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League. This was Wolverhampton's lone appearance in a European final, and Tottenham's second European title, nine years after their success in the European Cup Winners' Cup.
Background and changes
The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was created in 1955, being actually started a few months earlier than the UEFA-organised European Cup during the summer. The 'Fairs Cup', as it came to be known, was intended to provide a competitive background for matches between the representative teams of cities that hosted international trade fairs, which were being held in the previous years. As such, its calendar was highly irregular, with the first two editions being played over a five-year span.
The tournament had the backing of several influential football officials. This included FIFA Executive Committee members Ernst Thommen, who was the president of the Swiss Football Association, as well as Sir Stanley Rous and Ottorino Barassi. With no further need for international governance, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was internally regulated, from the referees to the disciplinary measures, and no coordination at all with the European Cup. At first, UEFA gave no further attention to the concept, as it was also inmersed from 1957 onwards in taking over the International Youth Tournament (nowadays, the UEFA European Under-19 Championship) thad had been initiated by FIFA.[2]
This approach changed at the start of the 60's as UEFA structures consolidated, being tasked by the FIFA statues to bring order to European competitions. In 1961, UEFA took over the European Cup Winners Cup after its inaugural edition, and in 1962 devised a plan to streamline the continental calendars and its competitions. A new ruling stated that "competitions open to the clubs of all National Associations affiliated to UEFA may only be organized by UEFA itself". However, this wasn't initially enforced with the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, due to its good reputation and the influence held by its organisers. In the meantime, the competition had adjusted to an annual schedule, while club teams quickly replaced city teams.[2]
By 1964, the belief within the UEFA Executive Committee was that the competition "should be governed and organised by UEFA itself", to ensure consistency over the rules, refereeing and disciplinary matters.[3] An initial proposal by the Scottish Football Association for UEFA to take over the tournament fell through by 15 votes to 5, due to the opposition of Sir Stanley Rous in his new role as FIFA president, and the support of the Football Association. However, when Scotland submitted a new proposal in 1966, the English association did agree that time, and the motion was narrowly passed by 11 votes to 10 despite the efforts of Rous to prevent it.[2][3]
Owing to the minimal margin between both positions, UEFA agreed to enter a negotiation period with the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup organizers. The terms were finally approved in 1968, and UEFA was due to take over for the 1969–70 edition. However, just a few months prior, most of the member association presidents agreed to extend the 'transitional period', which lasted for two further years. The tournament was then renamed as the UEFA Cup.[2]
The main changes came with the entry criteria. Teams would no longer be bound to their city being host to an international trade fair, and multiple teams from the same city could be entered. Qualification for the UEFA Cup was devised purely on sporting merits, either by the highest-placed European teams that had not qualified for the European Cup or UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, or by winning a secondary cup competition, such as a league cup. Initially, the lone exception to the rule came from England, which still applied the 'one city, one team' rule until UEFA imposed the standard qualification procedure in 1975. Otherwise, the UEFA Cup retained the same 64-team, five knock-out rounds format for a two-legged final, with multiple teams from Europe's strongest leagues.
Association team allocation
A total of 64 teams from 32 UEFA member associations were entered in the 1971–72 UEFA Cup. As the 'trade fair' requirement was abolished, teams from the Soviet Union, Cyprus and Albania were admitted for the first time, which required further modifications into the allocation scheme previously set up by the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
4 associations have four teams qualify.
5 associations have three teams qualify.
10 associations have two teams qualify.
13 associations have one team qualify.
Due to the newly entered associations, Belgium, Scotland and Yugoslavia lost the fourth birth they had gained the previous season, while England went back from five to four teams as the 'title holders' extra berth was not needed. Denmark and Greece also lost their second UEFA Cup birth, and East Germany regained their second birth, while Sweden and Bulgaria were also granted a second birth
Wales: There was no national league in Wales before 1992 and the only competition organised by the Football Association of Wales was the Welsh Cup so Wales had just a single participant in European competitions, the winner (or best placed Welsh team as several English teams also competed) of the Welsh Cup which competed in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for competition:
TH: Title holders
CW: Cup winners
CR: Cup runners-up
LC: League Cup winners
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
P-W: End-of-season European competition play-offs winners
West Germany: The fourth UEFA Cup spot for West Germany was not awarded to the fourth best team not qualified for the European Cup or the European Cup Winners' Cup, which was Schalke 04, as it was common practice. Instead, this place was awarded to Köln, who had been runners-up in the 1970–71 DFB-Pokal.
Albania: With the advent of the UEFA Cup, Vllaznia became the first Albanian team entered in the tournament, but it was later withdrawn from its first round match-up. Although previous informations incorrectly attributed the withdrawal on Austrian immigration officials not giving visas to the team, Vllaznia was actually banned from competing by Albanian authorities, as reported in the Albanian press by members of the team. This was part of a wider ban involving all sports teams of KF Vllaznia, after its men's volleyball team came back from a tour in the Yugoslav region of Kosovo with gifts and expensive items, which were strictly regulated or banned under the rule of Communist Albania.[4][5] Vllaznia was locally excluded for international competitions for two seasons; UEFA, on the other hand, banned Albania from the UEFA Cup for one year, and extended the ban to the European Cup when Vllaznia was not allowed to participate as champions.[6][7]
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows. Matches were primarily scheduled for Wednesdays, though some matches took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
1 Vllaznia withdrew after Albanian authorities banned the team from international competition, due to its volleyball team coming back from abroad with gifts and items that were deemed forbidden. 2 This match was played in Reykjavík. 3 Chemie Halle withdrew after the first leg following the Hotel 't Silveren Seepaerd fire.
Vllaznia withdrew after Albanian authorities banned the team from international competition, due to its volleyball team coming back from abroad with gifts and items that were deemed forbidden; Rapid Wien were awarded a walkover.
1 After the final whistle in the first leg, visiting Panionios fans invaded the pitch and attacked Ferencváros players, match officials, and Hungarian police. Panionios were ejected from the competition. 2 This match was played in 's-Hertogenbosch.
After the final whistle in the first leg, visiting Panionios fans invaded the pitch and attacked Ferencváros players, match officials, and Hungarian police. Panionios were ejected from the competition. Ferencváros were awarded a walkover.
^ abVieli, André, ed. (May 2009). "Origins of the UEFA Cup"(PDF). UEFA direct. No. 85. Nyon: Union des Associations Européennes de Football (UEFA). pp. 10–11. Archived(PDF) from the original on 8 April 2022.
